APRIL 10, 2015

NR # 3797

Accelerated nationwide irrigation program pushed

A lawmaker has filed a bill providing for a ten-year accelerated irrigation program
nationwide to fast-track rural development, attain food security and sustain productivity.
Rep. Arthur C. Yap (3rd District, Bohol) said House Bill 5368 seeks to provide for
the construction and rehabilitation of irrigation projects throughout the country.
In pushing for the immediate passage of the bill, Yap cited a 2009 report of the
National Irrigation Administration (NIA) showing a total of 3.1 million hectares of
agricultural lands in the country remain irrigable.
Yap said the bill hopes to address the situation. Stressing the need for an accelerated
irrigation program, he said, The average rice production in irrigated areas is about 80
percent higher than rain-fed areas, especially with the advent of Hybrid Seeds, and
Certified Seeds.
The maximization of these production varieties cannot be achieved without
sufficient irrigation, Yap said.
Yap said the bill mandates the NIA to prepare a comprehensive 10-year work
program upon consultation with multi-stakeholders such as local planning and
development councils, irrigators associations, agrarian reform beneficiaries, indigenous or
affected minorities, and relevant government agencies.
Under the program, Yap said the NIA shall effect the construction of irrigation
projects in the remaining unproductive, un-irrigated but potentially irrigable lands
nationwide and the underperforming irrigated lands.
The NIA shall likewise conduct parallel assessments of existing irrigation systems,
and the identification of potential irrigation projects, Yap said.
To ensure a sustained increased productivity as strategy to attain genuine rural
development, the comprehensive 10-year work program shall provide for the
sustainability of operation and maintenance of said systems after completion, including
institutionalization of a comprehensive package of infrastructure and social support
services to be integrated into the regular annual programs and budgets of the NIA and
other implementing agencies and instrumentalities, as well as the local government units
(LGUs).
The bill requires the NIA to have annual targets for the irrigation development of
new irrigable areas needed or with high potential, repair and rehabilitation of existing

national and communal service areas, in order to attain immediate food security in rice
and other staple agricultural crops.
It likewise mandates the NIA to guarantee that all irrigation programs and projects
to be undertaken shall be completed and made fully operational or implementable within
the duration of the ten-year special irrigation program.
The provincial offices of the NIA shall be responsible in the preparation of
feasibility studies and design of communal irrigation projects at cost to NIA.
The NIA shall continue to organize, develop and strengthen farmer-beneficiaries
under the measure into self-sustaining Irrigators Associations (IA) or farmer cooperatives.
The amount necessary for the initial implementation of the measure may be sourced
from any available appropriations intended for irrigation allocation under the amended
AFMA, CARP, Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF) and realigned
appropriations in the current years of the date of effectively of the proposed Act.
A Special Irrigation Fund shall be established by the Department of Budget and
Management (DBM) in the annual General Appropriations Act for the continuous
implementation of the measure until its 10th year completion date, with provision for
accelerated release in the first three years to meet intensive irrigation program costs.
The NIA, through the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture shall initiate the
convening of a Technical Working Group to promulgate the Implementing Rules and
Regulations (IRR) of the proposed Act. (30) jc